Electric vehicle makers and legacy automakers have launched in earnest the race to make such EVs so as to win over the public with increased range and powerful batteries.

In all EVs, an electric motor uses power from batteries to drive either two or all four wheels. Now auto equipment manufacturers have started to develop and test in-wheel electric motors—a technology that puts the motor in the hub of the wheel and drives it directly. Some of those in-wheel technology developers claim that they have overcome or are close to overcoming the challenges of using in-wheel motors—costs, additional mass, and road shocks.

The idea of direct in-wheel drive in cars is more than a hundred years old, but at the turn of the 20th century, it lost the race to its rival—the internal combustion engine mounted under the hood of the gasoline and diesel-powered cars.

Ferdinand Porsche (yes, that Porsche) is credited with inventing the electric wheel-hub motor, as in-wheel motors are also known. The Lohner-Porsche car with the electric hub wheel drive was one of the sensations at the Paris World’s Fair in 1900. Ferdinand Porsche also built the world’s first hybrid car—powered by gasoline and electricity.Related: Tehran: Taking Iran’s Oil Out Of The Market Is ‘Impossible’

Yet, for more than one hundred years the internal combustion engine (ICE) has been dominating car designs and manufacturing.

Now with the EV craze and the race to challenge and beat Tesla, car makers and propulsion makers are testing again the in-wheel technology, helped by the technological advances of the 21st century.

In-wheel motors have a few challenges to overcome. One is that they add more weight to the unsprung mass of the vehicle. Unsprung weight is the wheels, tires, brakes, and anything directly connected to the wheels. The sprung weight includes the chassis, motor, transmission, body, and interior, as well as the passengers and cargo. Another challenge is the higher exposure to road shocks and heat from braking due to the proximity of the in-wheel motor to the wheels.

But companies are trying. Protean Electric, for example, says that it has been testing how in-wheel motors affect unsprung mass and that with its technology, “unsprung mass really isn’t a showstopper after all.”

Protean is building manufacturing facilities in China, and its first factory—in Tianjin—already makes in-wheel motors in low volumes. The company is working with Chinese carmakers to incorporate its in-wheel technology into their electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.

In April, Protean and U.S. open-source vehicle designers LM Industries partnered to provide the in-wheel technology for Olli—the world’s first co-created, self-driving, electric and cognitive shuttle.

Slovenian company Elaphe is also making in-wheel technology for application in electric vehicles. Elaphe has tested its fully electric in-wheel drive on a frozen river in China at temperatures of below -30 Celsius (-22 F) to prove that traction control on ice is better than in ICE cars.Related: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait Halt Oil Production In Neutral Zone

The Fisker Orbit autonomous electric shuttle will be using in-wheel motor technology for improved interior space, and it will be the first vehicle to test Fisker solid state batteries, company founder Henrik Fisker said earlier this month. The in-wheel technology is that of Protean Electric.

German company Ziehl-Abegg has developed a motor for in-wheel hub drive that could be used in serial hybrid, battery, and fuel cell commercial vehicles.

This is really cool stuff! But as usual, we must be aware of the "spin" involved. This is true of charge field effects and media hype."Now with the EV craze and the race to challenge and beat Tesla, car makers and propulsion makers are testing again..."

Tesla has already been challenged and beaten from the beginning. Nissan's Leaf is the best-selling EV worldwide, period. Then there's the Chevy Bolt (a variant of the Volt), the Spark, the Ford Focus Electric, the Volkswagen e-Golf, the BMW i3, the Kia Soul-EV, the Bolloré Bluecar, the BYD e3, the Citroën C-Zero, the Fiat 500e, the Hyundai Ioniq...

There's dozens more. Tesla cars are nothing new, nothing special, and when we see it mentioned at all in these topics it's pretty much advertising propaganda. We can pretty much ignore Tesla Motors. They are irrelevant both in market share and technology.

Oilprice.com wrote:The solar roof and the Powerwall will combine with Tesla’s electric vehicles to create what Musk argues is a complete package for everyone to shift to clean energy. “These are really the three legs of the stool for a sustainable energy future,” Musk said. “Solar power going to a stationary battery pack so you have power at night, and then charging an electric vehicle … you can scale that to all the world’s demand.”

Reflecting its status as an increasingly vertically-integrated clean energy company, Bloomberg points out that Tesla is revamping its sales strategy. Instead of doing door-to-door sales for its solar roof, Tesla is moving its solar roofing sales into its EV car stores. Someone willing to plunk down $35,000 for an electric vehicle is also somebody that might be interested in a $50,000 solar roof. Predictably, the strategy is 50 to 100 percent more effective, based on the company’s early results.

Getting something like this working might be interesting. They are in the milliamp range but with the right rigging I bet an "Earth-C.F." style battery combined with Solar could be created at some point:

Rice University scientists have discovered a novel phenomenon of light-induced lattice expansion in perovskite materials. The lattice expansion cures bulk and interface defects, which leads to an enhancement of perovskite optoelectronic properties.

In a collaboration led by Rice University and Los Alamos National Laboratory found that to be the case with a perovskite compound touted as an efficient material to collect sunlight and convert it into energy. The press release likens the discovery as some materials are like people. Let them relax in the sun for a little while and they perform a lot better.

Constant illumination was found to relax the lattice of a perovskite-like material, making it more efficient at collecting sunlight and converting it to energy. The stable material was tested for solar cell use by scientists at Rice University and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

(Click to enlarge)

The researchers led by Aditya Mohite, a staff scientist at Los Alamos who will soon become a professor at Rice; Wanyi Nie, also a staff scientist at Los Alamos, and lead author and Rice graduate student Hsinhan (Dave) Tsai discovered that constant illumination relaxes strain in perovskite’s crystal lattice, allowing it to uniformly expand in all directions.

Expansion aligns the material’s crystal planes and cures defects in the bulk. That in turn reduces energetic barriers at the contacts, making it easier for electrons to move through the system and deliver energy to devices.

This not only improves the power conversion efficiency of the solar cell, but also does not compromise its photostability, with negligible degradation over more than 1,500 hours of operation under continuous one-sun illumination of 100 milliwatts per cubic centimeter.

The research paper published in Science, represents a significant step toward stable perovskite-based solar cells for next generation solar-to-electricity and solar-to-fuel technologies, according to the researchers.

Mohite said, “Hybrid perovskite crystal structures have a general formula of AMX3, where A is a cation, M is a divalent metal and X is a halide. It’s a polar semiconductor with a direct band gap similar to that of gallium arsenide.”

“This endows perovskites with an absorption coefficient that is nearly an order of magnitude larger than gallium arsenide (a common semiconductor in solar cells) across the entire solar spectrum,” he said. “This implies that a 300-nanometer thick film of perovskites is sufficient to absorb all the incident sunlight. By contrast, silicon is an indirect band gap material that requires 1,000 times more material to absorb the same amount of sunlight.”Related: Can Japan Dodge Trump’s Trade War?

Mohite said researchers have long sought efficient hybrid perovskites that are stable in sunlight and under ambient environmental conditions.

“Through this work, we demonstrated significant progress in achieving both of these objectives,” he said. “Our triple-cation-based perovskite in a cubic lattice shows excellent temperature stability at more than 100º Celsius (212º Fahrenheit).”

The researchers modeled and made more than 30 semiconducting, iodide-based thin films with perovskite-like structures: Crystalline cubes with atoms arranged in regular rows and columns. They measured their ability to transmit current and found that when soaked with light, the energetic barrier between the perovskite and the electrodes largely vanished as the bonds between atoms relaxed.

They were surprised to see that the barrier remained quenched for 30 minutes after the light was turned off. Because the films were kept at a constant temperature during the experiments, the researchers were also able to eliminate heat as a possible cause of the lattice expansion.

Measurements showed the “champion” hybrid perovskite device increased its power conversion efficiency from 18.5 percent to 20.5 percent. On average, all the cells had a raised efficiency above 19 percent. Mohite said perovskites used in the study were 7 percent away from the maximum possible efficiency for a single-junction solar cell.

He said the cells’ efficiency was nearly double that of all other solution-processed photovoltaic technologies and 5 percent lower than that of commercial silicon-based photovoltaics. They retained 85 percent of their peak efficiency after 800 hours of continuous operation at the maximum power point, and their current density showed no photo-induced degradation over the entire 1,500 hours.

"He said the cells’ efficiency was nearly double that of all other solution-processed photovoltaic technologies and 5 percent lower than that of commercial silicon-based photovoltaics. They retained 85 percent of their peak efficiency after 800 hours of continuous operation at the maximum power point, and their current density showed no photo-induced degradation over the entire 1,500 hours."

I believe this puts it at what, 25% efficiency? So 1/4 of the insolation is pushed into electrons to store energy? It does last a lot longer, and perhaps could be cheaper to manufacture, so it would be an improvement. Baby steps, towards harnessing the photons themselves...

I think there have been a few even a cooler conversion rate discoveries on this last year. Note the "Quantum Dot (xQD) again...IMHO I think they are just "finding" things somewhat accidentally that enhances the C.F. reception. :.........

A team of professors from the University of Wyoming has a discovery that will enhance a more efficient Solar Cell in delivering electrical energy. The process had seen the leap of a more efficient cell giving an output of a solar energy conversion rate to up to 700 percent. The new solar cells deliver more power than the usual solar cell composites.

The University of Wyoming professors are Jinke Tang and Yuri Dahnovsky, from the Department of Physics and Astronomy; Te Yu Chien, assistant professor of Physics and Astronomy, and Wenyong Wang, an associate professor in the same department. The group co-wrote and published their research in the journal "Applied Physics Letters" last year. The paper entitled "Giant Photocurrent Enhancement by Transition Metal Doping in Quantum Dot Sensitized Solar Cells" is in the limelight again pinpointed by the Department of Energy in the U.S. last April 2017. The DOE is responsible for the more efficient Solar Cell project funding.

At the onset of the team's trials, 4% of manganese atoms was added to the existing Lead Sulfide (PbS), Quantum Dot. The researchers expect to see a 4 percent rise in solar efficiency. But to their surprise, the professors calculated a 300 percent leap in solar energy delivery. At certain conditions, a 700 percent rise in efficiency is supplied, which is an unusual process, said Dahnovsky.

Presently, photoconductors and sensitizers are made of silicon. The search for more effective materials to replace them had been found and that is manganese. The replacement of silicon into manganese will mean more efficient solar cells. The discovery could lead to segment revolutionizing relevant applications in the field of solar energy, reports Physics.Org.

The small addition of Manganese atoms replacing a few of the lead atoms made the huge difference for a more efficient solar cell and enhance the solar conversion rate to electricity. The discovery also opened opportunities for other industrial and electronic applications across various industries, reports the US Department of Energy.

NEW YORK: A team of scientists at Stanford University, including a researcher of Indian origin, has shown how nanotechnology can be used to create crystalline silicon (c-Si) thin-film solar cells that are more efficient at capturing solar energy.

The discovery can reduce the cost of solar energy production globally, they noted.

Dr Shrestha Basu Mallick, working with her advisors Dr Mark Brongersma and Dr Peter Peumans, developed a new method of producing a cheaper and more efficient solar cell.

The team used optical modelling and electrical simulations to show that a thin-film crystalline silicon solar cell with a 2D nanostructure generated three times as much photo current as an unstructured cell of the same thickness.

This is because the nano-structured surface traps incoming light more effectively causing it to spend more time within the silicon material.

The longer the light spends inside the solar cell - the greater its chance of getting absorbed."Light absorption in crystalline silicon solar cells can be significantly enhanced by nanostructuring and this reduces the thickness of silicon required," said Dr Basu Mallick.

"This is important because it helps countries be competitive against imported cells and paves the way for new solar applications such as flexible or transparent cells," she added.

The discovery reveals a simple method to improve the efficiency of all silicon solar cells.

The world top 4 solar inverter companies defined in a report in 2017 by IHS Markit(UK), a professional global market analysis facility, take part in the event as a sponsor in a large booth. The No. 1 and No. 2 of the worldwide solar inverter supply amount(MW) are Huawei and Sungrow of China, and No. 3 is SMA Solar Technology of Germany, No. 4 is ABB of Switzerland.

KACO newenergy (Germany), GOODWE (China) and GROWATT (China) will also participate. This is the only solar show where you can meet Korean inverter manufacturers such as Dasstech, HEX power system, HEPHZIBA, Destin Power. This is because the prevailing forecast is that the size of the solar PV market in Korea will grow in the near future and the expectations on the government’s renewable energy policy are reflected.

Participation of more than the half of world top 10 global companies in the field of solar cell and panel.At this event, more than half of global top 10 companies including JinkoSolar(Module No. 1, cell No. 5), JA solar (Module No. 4, cell No. 2), Shunfeng-Suntech(Module No. 9, cell No. 10), TW Solar(cell No. 7) and Talesun(Solar battery) have confirmed their participation. World leading companies such as SUNPOWER, ASTROnergy, Sinosolar, SOFAR, OSDA, RUNDA, ULICA, AKOME, HAIHONG, Zhongjing, Shanxi jinneng, Shandong Zhongjing and GUANTAI have also confirmed their participation. Given that, overseas major companies are expected to accelerate their entry to Korean market, which shows that Korean solar market faces the second take-off stage, and the development of the situation is paid attention to afterwards.

○ This is the right place where you can meet all Korean Solar companies.

The 「3020 renewable energy implementation plan」 announced in last December is a blueprint for the government to actively foster PV & renewable energy industries and to secure sustainable energy sources. The government is preparing a strategy for the gradual implementation of large-scale project development to prepare for future energy conversion. Public energy organizations implementing and managing large-scale projects such as KEPCO, Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., Ltd.(KHNP) and Korea South-East Power Co., Ltd. will join the event with large-scale booths as a RPS(Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard) business.

○ Introducing of Energy start-up companies by KEPCO.There are also energy start-up companies discovered and supported by KEPCO. About 10 companies including SUNSOFT, Solarconnect, Sun & Wind Energy, and Energy Planet, who are equipped with renewable energy technologies and products such as solar cell equipment, software and wind power come in with a special booth as an energy start-up and that will be used as a stage for those start-ups to reach out to domestic and overseas markets.

Keep in mind companies that put panels on commercial highrise buildings -- as more people drive to work with EVs this may come into play in a big way. I bet a little bit of a Mathis input in this area could drive huge potentials (even energy revolutions if done right). Green Building codes will add to this focus as well:

The Top 10 List of Solar Panel Manufacturers (Global)

A big part of calculating solar panel quality is understanding the metrics and factors that determine it such as module efficiency and performance. Check out this solar panel analysis to better understand significant characteristics that will impact your solar panel performance. Also notable is the fact that not every company that made this list has a significant share of the US residential solar power market. Table: Top Solar Panel Manufacturers in 2018 – Global ranking by shipment volume

Buildings of the future may come equipped with windows that can generate their own electricity, thanks to a finding of a team led by Jacqui Cole, a materials scientist from the University of Cambridge, UK, currently based at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.

For the first time, Cole and colleagues determined the molecular structure of working solar cell electrodes within a fully assembled device that works like a window. The finding, published in Nanoscale, helps advance smart window technology that could enable cities to move closer to the goal of being energy sustainable.

The experiments were performed on dye-sensitized solar cells, which are transparent and thus well-suited for use in glass. Attempts to create smart window technologies have been limited by the many unknown molecular mechanisms between the electrodes and electrolyte that combine to determine how the device operates.

"Most previous studies have modeled the molecular function of these working electrodes without considering the electrolyte ingredients," Cole said. "Our work shows that these chemical ingredients can clearly influence the performance of solar cells, so we can now use this knowledge to tune the ions to increase photovoltaic efficiency."

To make the discovery, Cole—the 1851 Royal Commission 2014 Design Fellow—and her colleagues used neutron reflectometry to probe the function and interplay of the electrolyte ingredients with electrodes of the dye-sensitized solar cells. Neutron reflectometry, similar to X-ray reflectometry techniques, allows scientists to measure the structure of thin films with high resolution. But it was the fact that the tests were performed in a window-like system that made for a significant discovery.

"Prior research considered the working electrodes outside the device, so there has been no path to determine how the different device components interact," Cole said. "Our work signifies a huge leap forward as it's the world's first example of applying in situ neutron reflectometry to dye-sensitized solar cells.

Previous efforts to characterize the dye/titanium dioxide interface in these solar cells have been limited to determining this interfacial structure within an environment exposed to air or in a solvent medium. Because of these constraints, these solar cell environments are essentially artificial with limited relevance for window applications.

With this discovery, however, Cole and colleagues have moved beyond artificial constraints. In doing so, they can better understand how a thin-film electrode containing titanium dioxide, a naturally occurring compound found in paint, sunscreen and food coloring, can have a huge impact on solar cell efficiency.

"Our work has shown that certain chemical ingredients, some of which have so far been overlooked, can clearly influence the photovoltaic performance of these solar cells," Cole said.

Which leads to one troubling - for Elon Musk - conclusion: demand for the Model 3 well could by drying up.

Ever since Tesla launched the Model 3 in 2017, CEO Elon Musk said that the automaker has been ‘anti-selling’ the new electric vehicle in favor of Tesla’s current Model S and Model X as it ramps up production.

Now Electrek has learned that Tesla will finally start promoting the vehicle, or at least the performance version, by incentivizing its sales team to sell the vehicle and offering test drives.

At a press briefing for the delivery of the first few Model 3 vehicleslast year, Musk said that they are actively “anti-selling” the Model 3:

“We do everything we can to not sell the car.”

We have seen examples of this “anti-selling” where Tesla salespeople would call Model 3 reservation holders and try to sell them on the Model S instead.

....

Tesla Planning Shanghai Factory With Capacity For 500,000 Vehicles A Year

by Tyler DurdenTue, 07/10/2018 - 07:51

Update: According to Bloomberg, Tesla, and the Shanghai government have signed a MOU on a plant with 500,000/yr capacity:

Tesla to build an electric car plant in Shanghai with capacity of 500k vehicles/year, according to statement from Shanghai government.

Came across this and just wanted to add it in... graphene cars powered by telluric tapping "earth batteries" in the future?:----------BAC receives funding to bring its graphene-enhanced supercar to market

In 2016, Briggs Automotive Company (BAC) developed a vehicle made with graphene in its bodywork. Now, BAC received funding to undertake graphene research, with a view to pushing the technology towards production-readiness for the automotive industry.

BAC mono car image

The road-legal, single-seater supercar – the BAC Mono – received the Niche Vehicle Network (NVN) grant alongside Haydale Composite Solutions and Pentaxia Composites and will further explore the benefits of using graphene in composite body panels.

The NVN funding will enable BAC, Haydale and Pentaxia to develop lightweight composite materials using graphene and manufacture a novel carbon fibre composite tooling system with enhanced thermal conductivity.

The project aims to bring benefits in terms of weight reduction, CO2 emissions and manufacturing cycle times. Body panels will be installed and tested on the Mono supercar throughout the project, with the aim to reduce weight by 10% and cycles times by more than 25%.

Musk has hinted at the existence of Neuralink a few times over the last six months or so. More recently, Musk told a crowd in Dubai, “Over time I think we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence.” He added that “it's mostly about the bandwidth, the speed of the connection between your brain and the digital version of yourself, particularly output." On Twitter, Musk has responded to inquiring fans about his progress on a so-called “neural lace,” which is sci-fi shorthand for a brain-computer interface humans could use to improve themselves. -------------

Who’s behind this venture?

Neuralink’s team is:

Flip Sabes, a UC San Francisco professor whose lab has worked on brain-machine interfaces Ben Rapoport, a neurosurgeon who also has a PhD in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT DJ Seo, who designed a new brain-machine interface concept while studying at UC Berkeley Paul Merolla, who has been a designer for more than 10 brain-inspired chips Vanessa Tolosa, a researcher of biocompatible materials at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Max Hodak, who worked on brain-machine interface technology while at Duke University Tim Hanson, a researcher at the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center Tim Gardner, an associate professor of biology at Boston University who has worked on implanting brain-machine interfaces in birds Musk, who serves as the company’s CEO

Urban says Sabes and Gardner left tenured positions to join the team.

What’s the first project?

The team plans to develop a device that can be implanted in the brain that will help people who have certain brain injuries, such as those who have had strokes. Musk said on the blog that Neuralink plans to bring that device to market in about four years.

What’s the eventual, ultimate goal?

The thinking behind Elon Musk's newest company, Neuralink, as illustrated on the blog, Wait But Why. (Wait But Why)

Neuralink wants to create a “whole-brain interface,” or what Urban describes in more conversational terms on the blog as a “wizard hat” for the brain.

This device would be so completely integrated into the brain that it would feel “part of you,” Urban says in the blog. This interface would give the brain the ability to connect wirelessly with the cloud — with computers and other brains that also have the interface.

“This flow of information between your brain and the outside world would be so effortless, it would feel similar to the thinking that goes on in your head today,” the blog says.

Although this idea may creep people out, Musk said the level of technology available today already makes people a “cyborg.”

“You’re already a different creature than you would have been 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago,” he said on the blog. “I think people — they’re already kind of merged with their phone and their laptop and their applications and everything.”

FLINT, MI - Elon Musk and his team have been in touch with Flint Mayor Karen Weaver, and the two are talking about potential opportunities for Musk to make an impact in the city.

Weaver said she met with representation from his foundation to draw up a plan on how he can make a difference for the city's residents, now living more than four years into the city's ongoing water crisis.

Musk's team is interested in aiding the city with infrastructure and water remedies, in addition to funding environmental justice issues and technology, Weaver said.

"One of the things (Musk) did say was he wanted to do something that was impactful and meaningful to the city of Flint," Weaver said. "So we're going to continue to look at how we roll this plan out."

In a July 11 tweet, Musk pledged to fund fixing the water in any Flint home that's been contaminated above "FDA levels."

The billionaire CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, Inc. and Neuralink made the seemingly random commitment on Twitter on Wednesday.

Weaver spoke about Musk during a press conference on site where lead pipes were being replaced on Friday, July 20 on Flint's north side, alongside U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Twp.

Kildee brought a Congressional delegation to Flint to speak with residents and see first-hand how construction companies replace the pipes. The delegation included several members of the House Democratic leadership, such as House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn.

Musk's willingness to help is a compliment to the city, Kildee said, but it's important to guide the conversation to the most effective use of those resources. He said his team has also reached out and started dialogue with Musk.

"A lot of times, for example, like in the height of the (water) crisis, communities with all good intentions were delivering lots and lots of bottled water. That's good. We needed it, but there did come a point in time when there were some other needs that we had that were perhaps not getting met," Kildee said. "We'll accept Mr. Musk's offer on face value that he wants to help, and hopefully have a conversation with him as to how he can best do that."

What leaders say Elon Musk can do to help Flint

What leaders say Elon Musk can do to help Flint

The list of potential suggestions on how tech billionaire Elon Musk can help Flint is growing by the minute following his pledge on Twitter to provide some assistance as the city recovers from the water crisis.

It's the final edition of the Profitable Moment newsletter, and what better topic than personalities whose ramblings go wrong.

I'm going to focus on one person in particular.

No, it's not Mark Zuckerberg and his tone-deaf joke about privacy. It's not Kanye West's TMZ appearance, which was a cry for help if I've ever seen one.

I'm speaking of Elon Musk.

The pressure was on the Tesla (TSLA) boss to answer questions about his company's financial health. But when they were asked, Musk decided some of them were "dry" and "boring," and moved on.

It was a shocking performance for a man who is normally engaging and communicative.

The pressure from both media and shareholders over production of the Model 3 is obviously wearing on him.

But his outbursts have cost both him and shareholders. Tesla stock dropped 5.6% on Thursday, wiping $2.8 billion off the the company's market value.

Elon Musk doesn't care. And why should he? He's a billionaire building spaceships and cars of the future. Unfortunately, the rest of us do. And whether or not you own shares in Tesla, Musk's tone could be categorized in a range from dismissive to just plain rude.

Here's the Biggest Lesson I Learned Working for Elon Musk at TeslaTesla veteran Sisun Lee has worked at some of the most prominent companies on the planet, and now he's running his own with a mission to help you think clearly and feel energized no matter what you drank the night before.

Dan Bova

Entrepreneur StaffEditorial DirectorAugust 20, 2018 5 min read

Most great business ideas offer a way to solve problems and cure people’s headaches. CEO Sisun Lee, aims to do that literally with his product Morning Recovery, a drink supplement engineered to help the heartiest of partiers wake up with great memories and zero hangover. (God Bless...)

During a trip to South Korea, where drinkers down a mind-scrambling average of 13.7 shots per week, Sisun noticed many of the locals drank concoctions containing dihydromyricetin that helped them function the day after the most epic booze-a-thons. He brought some back to the U.S., gave it out to friends and quickly realized that he might have bottled success in his hands.

What started as something fun to do on the side suddenly got serious after he was able to quickly raise $250,000 with an Indiegogo campaign for his company 82 Labs. A year later, Lee left his day job at Tesla and went all in on 82 Labs, which closed an $8 million series A funding round this April that valued the company at $33 million. (We’ll drink to that!)

Entrepreneur spoke with Lee, a Facebook, Uber and Tesla vet, about how he launched this company, the steps he took to grow it and what those three big names on his resume taught him about running a business.

Idea in a bottle

“While traveling in Seoul, I saw a tremendous amount of people drinking these morning recovery drinks. I thought to myself that there was a market for this in the United States, but no product. So I brought some of the leading brands home with me to the Bay Area, used them myself and started giving them away to friends. Everyone kept asking me how it worked, and where they could get more. So I started researching, which led me to Dr. Jing Liang, an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Pharmacy. Eventually, we partnered and utilized her research behind DHM (dihydromyricetin), which we call ‘the liver superhero.’ Another professor at USC, Dr. Daryl Davies, Ph.D., is helping us to iterate and innovate new versions of the product.”